A total of 21 pieces from the historic Cork Mansion House service brought in a total hammer price €11,900 at Woodwards sale in Cork today. The set, from a private collection, was broken up into 13 lots and all were sold after competitive bidding. A tureen, plate and lid made €420, a platter made €400, soup bowls made from €250-€380 and pairs of dinner plates sold for from €540-€580. The dinner service was designed by renowned Cork based architect Richard Pain (1793-1838), who was a pupil of John Nash. The service is decorated with the Cork Coat of Arms, darts and mace.
Cork Mansion House service tureen. UPDATE: THIS MADE 420
About 300 lots of Cork and Irish silver and the biggest collection of Cork Mansion House mayoral service plates to come to auction for many years feature at Woodwards special auction of silver, art and collectibles on October 22. It is part of a feast of rare and collectible pieces due to come up at auction in Ireland in the coming week. Not least of these is a set of six Arts and Crafts dining chairs given by Michael Collins as a wedding present to his sister Mary which comes up at the Collector’s Cabinet sale at Mullen’s in Laurel Park today (€1,800-€2,200).
A rare pair of Power’s Whiskey pillar framed advertising mirrors with Celtic lettering is lot 282 at Victor Mee’s pub memorabilia sale on October 18 and 19 with an estimate of €8,000-€12,000. And collectors will be offered a wide range of appetising choices of quality antique Irish furniture, art and collectibles at the annual James Adam Country House Collections sale at Townley Hall near Drogheda next Monday (online) and Tuesday (live in Dublin). Viewing at Townley Hall is now underway.
One of a rare pair of 19th century Power’s Whiskey pillar framed advertising mirrors at Victor Mee. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Matthews Auctioneers of Kells will hold a two day sale next Tuesday and Wednesday with 1,338 lots of antique furniture, jewellery, art and collectibles.
Woodwards will feature the collection of Lt. Col. Michael C Nolan of Cork. Prime lots of silver include a c1750 Cork silver cream jug by Croker Barrington (€1,200-€1,600), a silver sugar bowl by Matthew West (€800-€1,200) and a silver strawberry dish by William Egan and Sons (€500-€700). Other Cork silver pieces include a sugar tongs by James Salter, a pair of tablespoons by Isaac Solomon, four dessert spoons by William Reynolds and a fish server by Richard Garde and there are examples from Cork makers like Samuel Green, Carden Terry and Jane Williams and John Nicholson.
More than 20 pieces from the old Cork Mansion House service – designed by the renowned Cork based architect Richard Pain (1793-1838) who was a pupil of John Nash – are included in the sale. The service was designed for the elegant old mansion house, now the Mercy Hospital. There is a tureen with a lid and plate, a large platter and a selection of dinner plates and soup bowls. Selling as individual lots or pairs they are expected to make from €500-€1,200 per lot. There is an interesting selection of art at Woodwards headed by Thatching in the Sun by Jack B Yeats and The Mountain Pool by Patrick Hennessey. Each of these works is estimated at €6,000-€8,000. There is art by Kenneth Webb, Anne Yeats, Peter Curling, Gladys Leach, Douglas Alexander, Norman Teeling, John Schwatschke, Marie Carroll and others.
Thatching in the Sun by Jack B Yeats UPDATE: THIS MADE 4,800
Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Lynch at Sheppards. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
Great Irish Interiors at Sheppards, collectibles at Whyte’s and Mullen’s, art at Morgan O’Driscoll and James Adam, an Irish collection at Sotheby’s in London, design at de Veres and antique furniture at Woodwards should get a busy summer season off to a flying start over the next week or so. Kicking off with an Eclectic Collector sale online at Whyte’s in Dublin today buyers at all price points will find plenty to choose from. Wine drinkers who enjoy Chateau Lynch Bages will no doubt be fascinated by a portrait at Sheppards of Jean Baptiste Lynch (1749-1835), Mayor of Bordeaux, Count of the French Empire, lawyer and son of Thomas Lynch who produced high quality wines under the name Cru de Lynch which eventually morphed into Lynch-Bages. The Lynch family – one of the Tribes of Galway – fled persecution in Ireland in the 17th century and this portrait is from the Derk estate in Co. Limerick, thence by descent. Lot 23 is estimated at €15,000-€25,000.
Three days of sales at Sheppards get underway next Tuesday (May 24). Viewing starts in Durrow today and the catalogue with a fascinating selection of antique furniture, Chinese and African collectibles, ceramics, chandeliers, sllver, jewellery and collectibles is online.
Along with Robert Emmet’s 1803 Proclamation Whyte’s sale today offers 1916 Rising and War of Independence documents and medals, Seamus Heaney signed first editions, Polar exploration volumes, maps, banknotes and coins and entertainment and sporting memorabilia. A Butterfly Spin by Damien Hirst and a silkscreen print of John Wayne by Andy Warhol feature at Morgan O’Driscoll’s online sale of affordable art which runs until next Monday evening (May 23) A strong selection of 20th century classic design furniture and Irish art will come under the hammer at de Veres next Tuesday afternoon (May 24). There is Danish and Italian furniture and lighting by designers including Arne Jacobsen, Finn Juhl, le Corbuser, Mies van der Rohe and Arne Vodder and art by Felim Egan, Robert Ballagh, Francis Tansey, Terry Frost and William Crozier.
An Irish George III oval mirror at Sotheby’s. UPDATE: THIS MADE £10,080
The sale of Monte Alverno: An Irish Collection at Sotheby’s in London next Thursday will give Irish and international collectors a chance to pick up something Irish and special like Regency peat buckets, gilt mirrors, antique furniture and art ranging from 18th century bird gouaches by Samuel Dixon through to Yeats, James Arthur O’Connor, John Luke and Patrick Swift.A pair of Georgian peat buckets and a pair of Edwardian demi-lune side tables are among the top antique furniture lots at Woodwards sale in Cork next Saturday (May 24). Among the Georgian lots are a three pillar dining table, a library table, a card table, a wine cooler, a bureau, a chest of drawers and a lowboy. An Edwardian inlaid sofa table and an office mahogany desk are among around 300 lots here.Next week is bookended by a sale of history, militaria and collectibles at Mullens of Laurel Park.
Photograph of a female climber in Victorian days at Mullen’s UPDATE: THIS LOT MADE 380 AT HAMMER
Among the first photographs of rock climbers in action were those taken by the Abraham family at Keswick in the Lake District. Mullens will offer a box of 50 glass stereoscope slides of 19th century images from Cumberland and North Wales featuring climbers in tweeds, flat caps and, in one memorable image, a skirt. In those Victorian times there was no lack of equality on the mountains. The sale kicks off with a skull of a Great Irish Elk. There is a poetry book inscribed by Roger Casement in Pentonville Prison on the night before his execution to Fr. Murnane of The Presbytery, Bermondsey.
A pair of Cork Republican silver candlesticks will highlight a special live and online auction of Irish and English silver at Woodwards on October 16. The candlesticks were made by Egans during the Irish Civil War when silver could not be safely sent to the Assay Office in Dublin. It was instead stamped with the Arms of Cork, with two castles and a ship in the centre. Republican silver is both rare and prized by collectors. This pair is estimated at €3,000-€5,000. There is a Republican silver sugar tongs (€400-800), a Cork silver salver stamped ‘STERLING’ (€400-600) a spoon marked ‘Grand Central Hotel’ by Egans as well as items of Cork silver by Carden Terry and Jane Williams.
The militaria section is from the estate of Brother William Palladius Allen (1892-1984) and includes an old Irish Blunderbuss made by Robert Tomlinson, Dublin.
The ricochet effect of the pandemic in our beckoning post lockdown world is a cause for speculation. Many new online buyers at auction houses are tech savvy youngsters. This much needed infusion is a sign of hope for the future of the trade. Whether they incline to online buying post lockdown, or turn up in person to bid is anyones guess. Auction action online is now normal, as distinct from new normal, and collectors can and do expect to range far and wide in pursuit of more variety and price points in any given week than ever before. So what next? In the immediate future there is more than enough art, antique furniture, collectibles and historical memorabilia at auction in Ireland to keep us all occupied and out of trouble.
Image of August Strindberg by Louis le Brocquy at Morgan O’Driscoll. UPDATE: THIS WAS UNSOLD
An oil by Arthur Maderson (€6,000-€8,000) and a set of Cork 11 bar dining chairs (€1,500-€2,000) are among the highlights at Woodwards sale in Cork on April 17. More than 300 lots will come under the hammer. Among them are a Louis XV bonheur du jour (€1,000-€2,000), a George II card table (€750-€1,500), a Queen Anne walnut chest on stand (€1,000-€1,600), a five piece cast iron garden suite (€1,600-€2,200) and a Georgian walnut card table (€700-€1,500).
The range of antique furniture at Woodwards includes a walnut davenport, an Edwardian bow fronted sideboard, a William IV rosewood card table, a Regency tip top table, a Georgian drop leaf dining table, a three tier dumb waiter, an Edwardian knife box and a selection of cellos and violins. There is a silver owl pepperette by George Richards, an ormolu figured mantel clock, a mariners brass theodolite, an Art Deco dancing figure and a Cork Distillers Irish Whiskey sign.
A George II walnut chest on stand at Woodwards.
The April version of the new monthly timed online auction at Hegarty’s features over 300 lots and closes on April 11. Highlights this time include a coloured limited edition lithograph by Mark Chagall of a stained glass window, a Royal Humane Society Award given in 1904, an oil of the Great Mosque, Cairo by Peter Sunderland, a collection of antique optometry equipment and an electric machine for nervous diseases patented in 1854.
Among the 196 lots that Morgan O’Driscoll will offer at his Irish and International online art sale on April 19 are two major head studies by Louis le Brocquy of August Strindberg and William Shakespeare from 1980 and 1981 respectively. Each one is estimated at €100,000-€150,000. In a catalogue note Peter Murray recounts how, one day in 1964 at a time when the artist was feeling dissatisfied and unable to find a way forward, he chanced to visit the Musee de l’Homme in Paris was inspired by a selection of Polynesian painted skulls. The Celts visualised the head as a kind of magic box housing the spirit and le Brocquy was directed towards the idea of encapsulating a lost human presence rather than a living portrait subject. A three day house clearance auction by Matthews of Kells gets underway online at noon today. On offer are contents from the Co. Louth home of the late Professor Kieran Taaffe, head of international affairs at Dublin Institute of Technology and a lifetime collector. More than 2,100 lots will be sold including Irish and International art, old silver, antique furniture, rugs, gilded mirrors, books, oriental items and collectibles.
Meantime the Co. Cavan auctioneer Victor Mee will offer a selection of 1,206 lots at an online Easter interiors and historical sale on Aril 13 and 14.
Irish collectors are faced with a dizzying array of online choices in a whole series of end of year sales in the run up to Christmas. Historically rare archival items, collectibles, antique furniture, Irish glass, porcelain, jewellery, silver and art will all come under the hammer. And there will be a series of major art sales in Dublin from December 7. The Woodwards online sale in Cork on December 5 offers a good selection of antique furniture, rugs, collectibles and art. There is a set of eight Cork 11-bar chairs (€2,500-4,000); a GCeorgian secretaire (€1,000-€1,500); an Edwardian drawingroom suite (€1,000-€1,500) and a pair of Waterford Crystal chandeliers (€800-1,500). At Sixmilebridge in Co. Clare Aidan Foley has a four day online sale with more than 2,000 lots starting on December 5 with a large collection of books, records and CD’s. This will be followed by auctions of antique furniture, mirrors, Persian rugs and art on the following three days. One of the prime lots is a large Killarney davenport with an estimate of €6,000-€8,000. The Collectors Cabinet sale by Mullens of Laurel Park, postponed from October, takes place on December 5. More than 500 lots of all sorts of everything from books and cinema posters to a facsimile of the Book of Kells, Irish Republican memorabilia and a collection of nearly 4,000 football programmes including the famous Irish v Germany games in 1936 when the Tricolour was published alongside the flag of Nazi Germany are due to come under the hammer.
In Dublin James Adam is running a timed online only At Home sale until December 2. There is silver, jewellery and watches, antique furniture, old Irish glass, art and collectibles with nearly 600 lots to chose from. More than 900 lots will come under the hammer online at a two day Christmas auction by Sean Eacrett of Ballybrittas, Co. Laois on December 5 and 6. The sale contents from an antique shop and a stamp collection.
A pair of Waterford Crystal chandeliers at Woodwards. UPDATE: THESE MADE 2,400 AT HAMMER
A 14 foot long Victorian d-end dining table and two sets of Cork 11-bar chairs come up at Woodwards online sale in Cork on September 5. The dining table is estimated at €1,000-€2,000, the chairs at €2,000-€3,000. Among the other lots are an Edwardian display cabinet (€500-€800), a Victorian walnut centre table (€700-1,000), an Edwardian serving table (€500-€800) and inlaid card table (€500-€800) and a tallboy chest (€400-€600). A fine Isfahan rug is estimated at €3,000-4,000, there is a selection of Cork silver by Egans.
UPDATE: THE first set of six chairs made 2,700 at hammer, the second set of six made 3,200. The d-end dining table made 2,700. A Persian Isfahan rug made 3,200 at hammer.
A selection of marine items such as a vintage sextant, a brass ships clock and a mariners compass will come up at the online only sale at Woodwards in Cork on July 18. Estimates for antique furniture like a Georgian Irish sideboard (€400-€600), a Victorian davenport (€300-€500) and a Georgian longcase clock (€200-€400) are low. The sale is online at Easy Live Auctions.
Walker’s Excelsior ships log. UPDATE: THIS MADE 190 AT HAMMER
The summer auction at Woodwards in Cork on July 23 features garden statues and benches as well as furniture. Included is a pair of lions on plinths from Underhill House in Dunmanway (5,000-7,000), a pair of Georgian style cast iron seats (3,000-4,000), large garden vases (700-1,200) and a pair of reclining lions (700-1,200). Furniture includes a Victorian sofa table (1,200-1,500), a Victorian chest of drawers (300-400) and a large gilt framed wall mirror (500-1,000).
Woodwards will offer a small maritime painting by George Mounsey Wheatley Atkinson (1806-1884) at their auction in Cork on June 18. HMS Conqueror off Queenstown (Cobh) is estimated at 5,000-8,000. There is a pair of watercolours of the Lakes of Killarney by Douglas Alexander and other art on offer includes At Tallow Horse Fair by Arthur Maderson. Antique furniture includes a Georgian bureau bookcase, a Regency rosewood card table, an inlaid revolving bookcase, a Georgian sofa table, a long case clock, a Georgian chest of drawers, a large gilt mirror, an inlaid twin pillar dining table and a Victorian davenport. A pair of cast iron garden vases, a five piece garden set and a pair of cast iron seats are seasonal offerings.
GEORGE MOUNSEY WHEATLEY ATKINSON ‘HMS Conqueror off Queenstown, Cobh’
Arthur Maderson ‘At Tallow Horse Fair’ (3,000-4,000)
